I am going to make this short and sweet because it is Saturday and I am looking forward to enjoying the day outside with my children!

Yesterday I was finally able to make it out to our community garden in Richfield to plant our 2010 garden. It opened last Saturday to planting but, the weather did not cooperate! Today, I am hoping to finish the rest of the planting while still being a mom for a little while today to my children.

We have done a garden in our city's community gardens for about 4-5 years now, it is fun and a TON of work, but when you have a small yard like we do it gives us the opportunity to be able to grow some of our own food. My son is 9 and he loves gardening more than I do. This year, we started most of our plants indoors and had fun watching them all grow from seeds. It is great for children to experience the growth process of a plant from a seed, to seedling, all the way to a fruit/veggie bearing plant.

In our fast paced society of meals from a box or a drive-thru, it is nice for children to actually see where their food comes from and they are much more willing to try new foods if they have grown it themselves! This year my son decided he wanted to try eggplant so, he is growing eggplant this year. I of course have no clue what to do with eggplant, so this will force me to learn something new too. I am also finally going to learn how to can this summer so we can enjoy our harvest well into the winter months too.

Here is a sample of what we are growing this year: eggplant, 4 different kinds of tomatoes, tomatillos, 5 different kinds of peppers, corn, sunflowers, 4 different kinds of lettuce, okra, broccoli, carrots, 2 kinds of peas, 2 kinds of beans, and cucumbers. We are hoping to grow onions, zucchini, and maybe a small pumpkin or squash plant, but we have to wait and see how much room we have left! Even if we don't get any corn, pumpkins or whatever else we still had the experience of working together, learning together, and being together while planting, weeding, and tending to our family garden.

I am amazed at how few of people in my own city even know Richfield has community garden plots for rent let alone my friends that live in other communities. So, I have a website and a map link that will show you where the community garden plots are around our community. Get out there and garden and enjoy the process of growing your own food.

http://www.gardeningmatters.org/directory/index.html

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117909560100596652590.000445bf083c117bf6c9e&ll=44.734517,-93.42208&spn=1.096471,1.118395&source=embed